Japan Advertising Exec Pleads Guilty to Olympics Bribery
Japan Advertising Exec Pleads Guilty to Olympics Bribery
TOKYO: The former president of a major Japanese advertising firm pleaded guilty Friday to bribing an Olympics official to secure a coveted sponsorship contract for the Tokyo Games.
The admission in a Tokyo court comes as the investigation into bid-rigging and bribery widens, casting a shadow over Sapporo’s bid for the 2030 Winter Games.
“Nothing stated is wrong,” Shinichi Ueno said in court at his first appearance, after prosecutors reeled off a list of allegations.
Prosecutors allege that Ueno, 69, offered at least 14 million yen ($103,000) to then-Tokyo Games executive Haruyuki Takahashi to secure sponsorship deals for ADK Holdings, Japan’s third-largest advertising agency.
By 2018, prosecutors said, Ueno was becoming “desperate” because his firm was yet to land a single contract, and pleaded with Takahashi: “please help us”. Takahashi is widely regarded as a pioneer of sports marketing in Japan, and his pet projects were prioritized by aides, prosecutors said.
He is now facing multiple charges about a string of alleged bribes reportedly worth nearly 200m yen.
After Ueno’s indictment, ADK said in a statement that it takes the situation “very seriously” and vowed to “reconstruct our governance and compliance system”.
The scandal has so far engulfed a suit retailer, a publishing firm, and even a merchandise company licensed to sell soft toys of the cute Games mascots.
It has also prompted the northern city of Sapporo to suspend the promotion of its 2030 Winter Olympics bid and arrange a nationwide poll to gauge support.
Prosecutors are continuing to investigate the scandal, and just this month arrested another former senior Tokyo Olympics official and three businessmen.
The four men are accused of rigging a string of supposedly open competitive bids and limited tender contracts for Olympic events, reportedly worth a total of 40 billion yen ($305m), local media said.
Questions had been raised over impropriety around the Tokyo Games even before the Covid-disrupted event took place in the summer of 2021.
The former head of Japan’s Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, stepped down in 2019 after French prosecutors launched an investigation into corruption allegations linked to Tokyo’s Olympic bid.
US Inflation Report Will Show Whether Stocks or Bonds Got it Right (Image: LahoreMirror)
US Inflation Report Will Show Whether Stocks or Bonds Got it Right (Image: LahoreMirror)
For the first time in a long time, stock and bond markets are flashing divergent signals on the economy and future Federal Reserve policy. Tuesday’s inflation report will go a long way in determining which one is right.
Bond markets have been cautious. Yields on two-year Treasuries have soared by more than 30 basis points over the past two weeks as traders grow wary of the Fed’s hawkish messaging ahead of the latest reading on consumer prices. Stocks have been less worried. Amid the re-rating in the debt market, the S&P 500 has climbed almost 1.5% over that span.
The disconnect speaks to the alternate realities being priced in by the two asset classes. The front end of the Treasury curve has aligned with the central bank’s projections for an ultimate destination for rates that is above 5%, with some bold options traders bracing for a possibility of 6%. Meanwhile, the stock market appears to be priced for an economy that largely withstands the Fed’s bid to cool the inflation economy, a setup that will face a key test in Tuesday morning’s data.
“The stock market wants to have its cake and eat it too,” said Dan Suzuki, deputy chief investment officer at Richard Bernstein Advisors. “The market is pricing in a Goldilocks scenario of better growth yet continued disinflation, and probably underpricing the negative risks from both the growth and inflation sides.”
After the Fed’s campaign to combat the hottest inflation in decades battered stocks and bonds alike in 2022, both markets rallied to start this year as optimism grew that the central bank is nearing the end of its tightening campaign.
That twin rally has stumbled in recent weeks. While Treasury yields are still lower than at the end of 2022, two-year yields last week posted their biggest weekly rise since early November and continued to climb on Monday. While the S&P 500 slipped 1.1% last week, it wiped out those losses Monday, re-establishing 2023’s nearly 8% advance.
The rethink was spurred by January’s blockbuster employment report, which showed that the US economy added nearly double the number of jobs forecast. As a result, swaps traders now see the Fed’s policy rate peaking at about 5.2% in July, versus about 4.9% earlier this year. The repricing is more in line with the median projection of Fed officials at just above 5.1%.
Economists polled by Bloomberg expect consumer price growth to fall to an annual rate of 6.2% in January, down from 6.5% the prior month. The month-over-month reading is expected to rise 0.5% after falling by 0.1% at the last reading.
Yet a team of researchers at Deutsche Bank says that while core inflation has been falling since June, the pace has been less extreme than many might realize. They also note that some components, such as used car prices, have risen this year.
“The CPI is going to be a test of who’s got it right — the bond market or the stock market,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley, said by phone. “Right now, the anticipatory move in bond yields likely is right because the consensus is higher month over month on the CPI. Full stop. But the post-CPI-print reaction is where the test results come in.”
In addition to the obvious outcomes from Tuesday’s CPI — that bonds rise and stocks fall on a hot print, or bonds fall and stocks rise on a cool one — a third scenario is also possible, according to Hogan. It’s that a higher-than-expected inflation reading could be taken in stride by equities because it points to a robust economy, though he’d like to see a follow-through of that via a strong retail sales report later in the week.
The S&P 500 has over the past two months been reacting less negatively on CPI-release days, though they’ve still been volatile sessions, according to Jake Gordon at Bespoke Investment Group. That means “we’re still far from more normal levels of both CPI reports and the market’s reaction to them,” he wrote.
Equities have been rallying in recent weeks, with growth stocks outperforming since the start of the year. But they could come under pressure if the CPI print comes in hotter than expected, says Ellen Hazen, chief market strategist, and portfolio manager at F.L. Putnam Investment Management.
In that case, “you’ll see the bond market reflect the fact that rates are going to continue to go up for the rest of the year,” she said in an interview. “The stock market would give some back as it becomes more likely that the Fed needs to be more aggressive and constrain financial conditions even more.”
Adani Lowers Growth Target and Capital Expenditure on Post-Hindenburg Repair Moves (Image: PTI)
Adani Lowers Growth Target and Capital Expenditure on Post-Hindenburg Repair Moves (Image: PTI)
Gautam Adani’s conglomerate has halved its revenue growth target and plans to delay new capital expenditures, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Indian billionaire seeks to rebuild investor confidence in the wake of a short-selling attack.
The group will now target revenue growth of 15% to 20% for at least the next financial year, below the 40% expansion originally targeted, said the people, who declined to be named as discussions are private. Capital spending plans will also be scaled back, they said, as the group prioritizes bolstering its overly aggressive expansion of financial health.
Most of the group’s shares fell at Monday’s open, with Adani Green Energy Ltd., Adani Total Gas Ltd., and Adani Transmission Ltd. all below the 5% limit.
The change in policy shows how the ports-to-energy conglomerate is focused on conserving cash, paying off debt, and recovering committed shares as it struggles to undo the damage of a scathing report by Hindenburg Research on Jan. 24. Even though Adani Group denied allegations of accounting fraud and stock manipulation imposed by the American short seller, the scandal triggered a stock crash that has wiped more than $120 billion off the market value of the Adani Empire.
The group’s plans are still being reviewed and will be finalized in the coming weeks, the people said.
A representative for the Adani Group did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on its plan to cut the revenue target and delay capital expenditures.
‘Inter-Linkages’
“The scale and economic interrelationships of Adani’s businesses make it relevant to discuss what any pullback in the group’s investments could imply for the economy as a whole,” Barclays Plc analysts led by Avanti Save wrote in a Feb. 10 report. “A disruptive outcome of the situation or a sharp pullback in the group’s investments could have implications for India’s capital spending cycle.”
If the follow-up offer is not subscribed, “we will postpone the growth program from six to nine months and then we will do it later,” Singh told The Hindu Businessline in an interview published on Jan. 29. The sale was scrapped three days later, amid pressure from investors.
The withdrawal is a marked shift for a tycoon who was on a rapid — and indebted — wave of expansion in recent years and reflects the significant impact the Hindenburg assault has had on the conglomerate.
The first-generation entrepreneur, who started with an agricultural trading company in the 1980s, quickly built an empire that now encompasses ports, airports, coal mines, power plants, and utilities. In recent years, it dabbled in green energy, cement, media, data centers, and real estate, assuming considerable influence in a way that has spooked some credit watchers.
Assuage Concerns
In the days since the stock market crash triggered by Hindenburg, Adani and its companies have been working to calm the concerns of investors and lenders.
On Feb. 1, flagship company Adani Enterprises Ltd. abruptly shelved the follow-up $2.5 billion stock offering, even though it was fully subscribed the day before, as the tycoon sought to avoid embarrassing market losses for his investors amid the relentless stock sell-off. A couple of days later, the company canceled a retail bond sale.
The Adani Group has focused on avoiding worries about its financial health and shoring up sentiment.
On Feb. 6, the group said Adani and his family repaid $1.11 billion in advance loans to release committed shares in three firms, while the ports unit announced plans on Feb. 8 to repay the debt of 50 billion rupees in the year starting in April to boost a key credit metric.
The conglomerate plans to prepay off a $500 million bridge loan due next month after some banks refused to refinance the debt, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday citing people familiar with the discussions. It was part of fundraising last year to finance the acquisition of Holcim Ltd.’s cement assets in India.
Big Four Auditor
Adani Group plans to hire a Big Four auditor to “conduct a comprehensive audit,” French energy giant TotalEnergies SE said in a statement earlier this month describing its investments in India. This will help address some of the red flags raised by Hindenburg.
The Indian conglomerate has hired public relations firm Kekst CNC as its global communications adviser, Bloomberg News reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. Kekst, according to its website, has been involved in high-profile litigation matters, “working against some of the most aggressive counterparties.”
Attempts to calm investors’ nerves helped rally stocks early last week, but headwinds remain strong.
The stock sell-off resumed after MSCI Inc. reduced the number of shares it considers freely tradable for four of the companies, a move that will result in lower weightings in its indices. Moody’s Investors Service on Friday cut its outlook for Adani Green Energy Ltd. and three other group companies, citing falling shares.
More shares in three Adani Group companies were promised, SBICaps Trustee said in a notice to Indian exchanges late Friday, “to the benefit of lenders” of Adani Enterprises.
Bonds Plunge, Moody's Sees External Position under Stress (Image: Reuters)
Bonds Plunge, Moody’s Sees External Position under Stress (Image: Reuters)
Karachi: Sovereign bonds plunged on Friday after Pakistan’s bailout talks with the IMF ended without a deal.
The country’s bond which was due to be paid off as soon as possible, in April 2024, fell 4.6 cents on the dollar or about nine percent.
Other bonds with longer repayment dates fell between two and three cents to less than half their face value.
The country is in the midst of a shortage of dollars, which is causing a depreciation in the value of the rupee against the dollar.
The country’s inability to finance its imports has led to a shortage of industrial raw materials and a disruption of production.
Sentiment in capital markets has fallen amid a deepening currency crisis as the country desperately tries to revive the IMF’s $7 billion lending program.
Separately, in a separate statement on Friday, Moody’s Investors Service said the revenue-raising measures will likely be among the preliminary actions the IMF requires before releasing the next tranche of financing to Pakistan.
Central Bank of Brazil Will Test the Security and Privacy Levels of Digital Real Transactions
Central Bank of Brazil Will Test the Security and Privacy Levels of Digital Real Transactions
Brazil’s central bank will focus its first real digital tests on determining the levels of privacy and security that can be achieved with the central bank’s proposed digital currency infrastructure (CBDC). The tests will be carried out later this year and will establish a simplified operation to make transactions with a yet-to-be-determined tokenized asset.
Brazil’s central bank is accelerating the real digital project, approaching its pilot phase. The institution announced that it would conduct a series of operational tests to verify the functionality of the proposed architecture for the system.
Fabio Araujo, the coordinator of the real digital project at the Central Bank of Brazil, explained that security and privacy would be two of the most important areas to examine with these tests. Araujo told Broadcast:
“We are going to simplify the operation, but we are going to have several participants exchange information to see the degree of security and privacy that we can bring to the system. The pilot is focused on that.”
Araujo explained that the goal behind this test would be to determine whether the leakage of transaction information derived from the system is compatible with current regulatory requirements.
Test Details
The tests described by Araujo would begin after the current laboratory phase of the digital realm, which is currently being carried out as part of the LIFT challenge, an open project that brings together several organizations. The challenge attracted nine different proposals that aim to include real digital as part of economic efforts.
Institutions and organizations that are part of the LIFT challenge must submit their final project reports by April 25. The new set of pilot tests is expected to take place after this event. However, the pilot will have limited scope, will be displayed in a simplified operating environment, and will only feature the introduction of another tokenized asset not yet selected for transactions.
The test will also allow Brazil’s central bank and Brazil’s Securities Commission to examine how third parties might interact with the system, including banks, which will be able to issue their digitally backed tokens. This expanded test environment will be open to institutions and banks in 2024.
While there is no announced release date for the digital real yet, Roberto Campos Neto, president of Brazil’s central bank, hinted at a 2024 launch date in December.
Five Key Takeaways from Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union (Image: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via AP Photo)
Biden addressed his legislative agenda for the coming year, including economic goals, relations with China, and police reform.
Five Key Takeaways from Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union (Image: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via AP Photo)
U.S. President Joe Biden delivered the annual State of the Union address, the second of his presidency, in which he outlined his policy goals and spoke about accomplishments as he ponders running for a second term.
But Tuesday’s speech was the first delivered before a divided Congress, which interrupted the president during the sometimes combative speech.
Facing a Democratic-led Senate and a House of Representatives now under Republican control, the 80-year-old president touted his economic record and victories on infrastructure spending, clean energy, and prescription drug prices.
With State of the Union addresses drawing tens of millions of viewers each year, this year’s speech is probably the biggest platform Biden has before he hits the campaign trail before the 2024 presidential election.
Here are the five most important takeaways from this year’s speech.
Warning to China against the Threat of US Sovereignty
An alleged Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States had dominated headlines in the week before Biden’s speech, as relations between the two countries remain tense.
Biden on Tuesday warned China against threatening the United States while reiterating the position that Washington is not seeking a confrontation with Beijing.
“As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country, and we did,” he said, referring to the downing of the balloon.
Biden has forged ahead with his predecessor Donald Trump’s strategy of prioritizing competition with China in U.S. foreign policy.
“Let’s be clear: winning the competition should bring us all together,” Biden said.
A Call for Cooperation with Republican “Friends”
The president of the United States called on Republicans to work with him, denouncing “fighting to fight.”
“Republican friends, we could work together,” he said.
“We’re often told that Democrats or Republicans can’t work together. But in the last two years, we proved the cynics and naysayers wrong,” he said, pointing to laws passed with bipartisan support, including the Respect Marriage Act.
But Biden also took the opportunity to press Republicans, calling for cooperation as negotiations over raising the debt ceiling continue to stall.
“Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage. I understand. Unless I agree with their economic plans,” Biden said to boos on the camera. He later added: “I’m not saying it’s the majority of you. But it is being proposed by individuals. Politely I’m not naming them.”
Under Republican President Kevin McCarthy, it seems unlikely that the House majority will advance many of the priorities laid out in Biden’s speech, including police reform and a “multibillion-dollar minimum tax.”
President Biden delivers a copy of his speech to House Speaker McCarthy on Feb 7 (Image: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via Reuters)
Focus On Economic Records and Infrastructure Gains
Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. economy, hampered by inflation, was largely seen as an Achilles heel for Democrats.
But Biden’s Democratic Party managed to silence a widely expected Republican “red wave.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. president made his economic record one of the focal points, if not the central message, of his speech, praising low unemployment rates, infrastructure investments, and what he described as a return on American manufacturing.
Biden said that after years of bleeding jobs in overseas factories, the United States is on track to reverse trends in manufacturing.
“Where is it written that America cannot lead the world in manufacturing? I don’t know where it is written. For too many decades, we imported goods and exported jobs,” he told lawmakers.
“Now, thanks to what all of you have done, we are exporting American products and creating American jobs.”
He also praised a 2021 bipartisan law that secured $1.2 trillion to revitalize the country’s infrastructure.
“We’ve sunk to 13th in the world, the United States of America, to 13th in the world, for infrastructure, modern infrastructure,” Biden said.
“But now we’re coming back because we came together and passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill, the largest investment infrastructure since President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system.”
Pressuring Corporations to Pay Their “Fair Share”
Laying out an ambitious policy goal of modernizing the U.S. economy and combating the climate crisis, Biden said his agenda would be funded “finally by getting the wealthiest and largest corporations to start paying their fair share” in taxes.
“I’m a capitalist, but pay your fair share,” Biden said. “I think many of you at home agree with me… The tax system is not fair.”
He went on to highlight his administration’s efforts to crack down on hidden costs charged to consumers by major companies, known as junk fees.
“Big corporations aren’t just taking advantage of the tax code. They’re taking advantage of you, the American consumer,” Biden said, adding, “Capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s exploitation.”
Biden also called for capping the price of insulin to $35 for all Americans, after a law went into effect limiting the cost for seniors on Medicare, a healthcare program primarily for older Americans.
“Let’s finish the job this time. Let’s limit the cost… for everyone to $35. Big Pharma is still going to do very well, I promise you,” he said.
Rodney Wells and RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’ stepfather and mother, attended the State of the Union on Tuesday (Image: Leah Millis/Reuters)
Urge Police Accountability and a Ban on Assault Weapons
Salute to the parents of Tyre Nichols, a black man who died after being beaten by police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, Biden called for police reforms.
“We have to do better,” Biden said. “Give law enforcement the actual training they need, hold them to higher standards, and help them succeed in keeping us safe.”
The president said what happened to Nichols “happens all too often.”
“When police officers or police departments violate the public trust, they must be held accountable,” Biden said.
“We all want the same thing: violence-free neighborhoods. Law enforcement that earns the trust of the community.”
His comments came amid Republican criticism that Democrats are “soft on crime” as they seek criminal justice reform.
But on Tuesday, Biden struck a balance between recognizing the difficulties law enforcement officers face and the need to reduce police violence. He also called for greater community resources to be provided.
“We also need more first responders and professionals to address growing mental health and substance abuse challenges; more resources to reduce violent crime and gun crime; for community intervention programs; More investments for housing, education, and job training,” he said.
He also strongly opposed the use of semi-automatic “assault weapons,” calling for a 1994 ban to be revived to address the current wave of mass shootings in the United States.
“Ban assault weapons now,” Biden said emphatically. “Ban them now, once and for all.”
Death Toll Tops 4,000 After Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
Sub-zero weather conditions and snowfall in the devastated region have increased hardship for rescue workers.
Death Toll Tops 4,000 After Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared seven days of national mourning, and Syria has appealed to the United Nations for help following devastating earthquakes that killed more than 4,000 people and toppled buildings in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.
Authorities fear the death toll from the 7.8-magnitude quake before dawn on Monday, followed by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks, will continue to rise as rescuers searched for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete scattered across a region already suffering under Syria’s 12-year civil war and a refugee crisis.
Rescuers searched through the cold night into Tuesday morning, hoping to pull more survivors out of the rubble as those trapped screamed for help under mountains of rubble.
Yunus Sezer, head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), gave the death toll in Turkey at 2,921, while another 15,834 were injured.
In Syria, at least 1,300 people were killed, according to the Health Ministry and the White Helmets rescue organization late Monday.
Freezing winter weather and snowfall in the devastated region have added to the plight of many thousands of people injured and homeless by the quake. Toppled buildings and destroyed roads have hampered efforts to find survivors and bring crucial aid to affected areas.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said millions of people need help.
“And their need is even more acute because its winter and they’re facing cold temperatures, snow, and rain.”
Ten cities in southern Turkey have been declared disaster zones, according to Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Istanbul. Sub-zero temperatures and snow have hampered rescue efforts, and more bad weather is expected to hit the region. The supply of electricity and natural gas has been cut in many areas and the government is working to restore both services.
“A full picture of the devastation is just beginning to emerge, a devastation that will likely become more apparent as the sun rises” on Tuesday, Ghoneim said.
Seismic activity continued to rattle the region on Monday, including another jolt almost as powerful as the initial quake.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the initial quake at 7.8, with a depth of 11 miles (18 km). Hours later, a magnitude 7.6 tremor also hit. The second jolt caused a multi-story apartment building in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa to collapse on the street in a cloud of dust as passersby screamed, according to video of the scene.
Dramatic video footage broadcast on Turkish television showed buildings collapsing in real-time. Footage showed rescuers pulling a child alive from a crushed building. The boy was reunited with his distraught parents on snow-covered streets.
More than 7,800 people have been rescued in 10 provinces, according to Orhan Tatar, an official with Turkey’s disaster management authority. Overburdened medical facilities have quickly filled with injured people, rescuers said.
The Syrian-American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria and southern Turkey, said in a statement that its facilities were “overwhelmed with patients filling the corridors” and urgently called for “trauma supplies and a comprehensive emergency response to save lives and treat the wounded.”
Governments and aid agencies have rushed to deploy personnel, funds, and equipment in Turkey and Syria.
Al Jazeera
Jordan is sending emergency aid to Syria and Turkey on the orders of King Abdullah II, while Egypt has pledged urgent humanitarian aid to Turkey. Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is also sending Red Cross and Civil Defense rescuers and firefighters to Turkey to help with its rescue efforts.
The European Union has mobilized search and rescue teams, and the bloc’s Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services. At least 13 member countries have offered assistance. The UK and US said they are also ready to send aid to Syria, but Washington has ruled out dealing directly with the Syrian government.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it is coordinating its aid response with EU partners and preparing deliveries of emergency generators, tents, blankets, and water treatment equipment.
The United States is coordinating immediate assistance to NATO member Turkey, including teams to support search and rescue efforts. In California, nearly 100 Los Angeles County firefighters and structural engineers, along with six specially trained dogs, were sent to Turkey to help with rescue efforts.
Russian rescue teams from the Emergencies Ministry are preparing to fly to Syria, where the Russian military deployed in that country has already sent 10 units made up of 300 people to help clear the rubble and search for survivors. The Russian military has set up points to distribute humanitarian assistance. Russia has also offered aid to Turkey, which has been accepted.
Google Invests Nearly $400 Million in ChatGPT Rival Anthropic (Image: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)
Google Invests Nearly $400 Million in ChatGPT Rival Anthropic (Image: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)
Alphabet Inc.’s Google has invested nearly $400 million in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, which is testing a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to a person familiar with the deal.
Google and Anthropic declined to comment on the investment but separately announced a partnership in which Anthropic will use Google’s cloud computing services. The deal marks the latest alliance between a tech giant and an AI startup as the field of generative AI — technology that can generate text and art in seconds — heats up.
The deal gives Google a stake in Anthropic but doesn’t require the startup to spend the funds buying cloud services from Google, said the person who asked not to be identified because the terms were confidential.
“AI has evolved from academic research to become one of the biggest drivers of technological change, creating new growth opportunities and better services across industries,” Thomas Kurian, chief executive of Google Cloud, said in a statement. “Google Cloud is providing open infrastructure for the next generation of AI startups, and our partnership with Anthropic is a great example of how we’re helping users and businesses harness the power of trusted and responsible AI.”
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI Inc. leaders including siblings Daniela and Dario Amodei, Anthropic AI in January launched a limited trial of a new chatbot called Claude to rival OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
Such partnerships give more established companies like Microsoft and Google access to some of the most popular and advanced AI systems. Startups like Anthropic, in turn, need cloud computing funds and resources that a tech giant like Google can provide. In announcing the deal, Google said its cloud division would lend computing power and advanced AI chips that Anthropic plans to use to train and deploy its future AI products.
Anthropic’s language model assistant, Claude, has yet to be released to the public, but the startup said it planned to expand access to the chatbot “in the coming months.”
The deal underscores Google’s commitment to AI, particularly in ways that can expand beyond the company’s core search business. “I’m excited about the AI-powered leaps we’re about to reveal in Search and beyond,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Thursday when the company reported fourth-quarter earnings. He said Google intended to launch chatbots “in the coming weeks and months” and allow consumers to use such products “as a companion for search.”
Google’s investment in Anthropic was previously reported by the Financial Times.
Thousands Mistake US Research Plane, Viral Explosion for Chinese Spy Balloon (Image: Bloomberg)
Thousands Mistake US Research Plane, Viral Explosion for Chinese Spy Balloon (Image: Bloomberg)
A US high-altitude research balloon is now among the world’s most tracked aircraft after thousands of internet users mistook it for the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over the western state of Montana.
More than 4,000 users followed every move of “N257TH,” a standard high-altitude research balloon that is often launched over the United States, according to FlightRadar24. In response, the popular plane-tracking website said in a tweet Saturday that it updated its label for the American balloon, adding that the object was “not a Chinese balloon.”
To provide additional clarity about what balloons are and are not visible on Flightradar24, we’ve updated our database entry for N257TH. N257TH is a standard high altitude research balloon, often released over the US and is not the Chinese balloon. https://t.co/vJ8YqGudAUpic.twitter.com/qxvx7tlFXK
The high-altitude Chinese balloon hovering over the continental United States has captured the world’s attention and forced Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel his trip to Beijing. The balloon is part of a broader Chinese spying program that has seen many of these devices shipped to the United States, including some during the Trump administration, according to officials in Washington.
The fate of the balloon, as it floats 10 miles above the ground, remains uncertain, as do the delicate relations between two superpowers seeking ways to reduce tensions and get talks back on track. Authorities in the southern Montana city of Billings issued a statement refuting the veracity of a video purporting to show an explosion and the balloon crashing to the ground after it went viral on Twitter and was shared by cable news networks.
We are aware of the video shared on Twitter and claims of a “massive explosion” over Billings. However, our PD, Fire & airport have NOT been called to any incidents related to this video and there haven’t been any plane crashes picked up on radar #ChineseSpyBalloon#spyballoon
US Alleges Chinese Spy Balloon Flew Over Sensitive Military Sites (Image: Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)
US officials told reporters the military was prepared to shoot down the balloon but was deterred by the potential for damage.
US Alleges Chinese Spy Balloon Flew Over Sensitive Military Sites (Image: Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)
A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon has been flying over the United States for a couple of days, but the Pentagon has decided not to shoot it down for fear of harming people on the ground, US officials said.
The United States took “custody” of the balloon as it entered US airspace and observed it with US military aircraft piloted, an official told Pentagon reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity.
The United States has “very high confidence” that it is a high-altitude Chinese balloon and that it was flying over sensitive sites to gather information, the official added.
One of the places where the balloon was seen was Montana, which is home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, where there are about 150 silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles, including the nuclear-capable Minuteman III.
“The U.S. government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.
He said similar surveillance activity has been seen in recent years, adding that the United States had taken steps to ensure the balloon did not collect sensitive information.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while traveling in the Philippines, convened a meeting of senior Pentagon officials on Wednesday to discuss the incident.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would request a “Gang of Eight” briefing, referring to a classified national security briefing for congressional leaders, and Republican and Democratic leaders, of the intelligence committees.
The defense official said the U.S. has “engaged” Chinese officials through multiple channels and communicated the seriousness of the matter.
Purpose Unclear
Glenn Carle, a national security expert, told Al Jazeera that the balloon flight was curious.
“They have satellites that are sophisticated and it’s not clear to me what intelligence advantage they could gain from doing this,” said Carle, a former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats at the CIA. “Perhaps it fits with the ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy that China has pursued: to be aggressive in pursuing its interests until there is a sharp pushback.”
The Pentagon’s announcement comes days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to China. It’s unclear if this will affect his travel plans, which the State Department has not formally announced.
The United States is expanding its military presence in Asia in a series of moves aimed at countering Beijing and reassuring Indo-Pacific allies that it will support them against threats from China and North Korea. On Thursday, Austin announced an expansion of military cooperation with the Philippines, a longtime U.S. ally in Southeast Asia.
The senior defense official said the U.S. had mobilized fighter jets, including F-22s, to shoot down the balloon if ordered to do so by the White House.
The Pentagon ultimately recommended no such action, noting that even though the balloon was over a sparsely populated area of Montana, its size would create a debris field large enough to potentially put people at risk.
The official said the current flight path would carry the balloon over several sensitive sites, but gave no details.
Another U.S. official said the spy had been tracked near the Aleutian Islands and Canada before entering the United States.
In a subsequent statement, Canada’s Ministry of National Defense confirmed that a high-altitude surveillance balloon had been detected and that its movements were being “actively tracked” by NORAD, a bi-national US military command.
“Canadians are safe and Canada is taking steps to ensure the safety of its airspace, including monitoring a possible second incident,” the statement said.
Images shared on social media showed what appeared to be a large white object in the sky over Billings, Montana. The Pentagon has not confirmed that the photo shows the alleged spy balloon (Image: Chase Doak/via Reuters)
The U.S. official did not specify the size of the balloon but said it was large enough that, despite its high altitude, commercial pilots could see it.
On social media, people close to Billings shared photos of pale, round objects high in the sky that were separated from the moon. The Pentagon did not provide images.
Spy balloons have flown over the United States several times in recent years, but this balloon appeared to take longer than in previous cases, the official noted.
Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said such balloons were seen as a low-cost method of gathering intelligence and had been widely used by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“The timing of this incident is curious, as it comes just days before Secretary Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing,” he said.
